


Three Days

by Twice_before_Friday



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Dehydration, Drug Withdrawal, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Surprisingly Fluffy, Until it isn't, abducted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:55:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22680595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twice_before_Friday/pseuds/Twice_before_Friday
Summary: Three days.Three days locked in an empty room, caged in by mouldy redbrick walls with nowhere to sit but the cracked concrete floor.Three days with no food.Three days surviving on the two bottles of water that their kidnappers had provided when they first locked them in, presumably thinking that it would be a good idea to keep the hostages alive. Dani was trying really hard not to focus on what it meant that nothing had been provided since.
Relationships: Malcolm Bright & Dani Powell
Comments: 78
Kudos: 210





	1. Chapter 1

Three days.

Three days locked in an empty room, caged in by mouldy redbrick walls with nowhere to sit but the cracked concrete floor.

Three days with no food.

Three days surviving on the two bottles of water that their kidnappers had provided when they first locked them in, presumably thinking that it would be a good idea to keep the hostages alive. Dani was trying really hard not to focus on what it meant that nothing had been provided since.

She was sitting cross legged on the floor with her head leaned back against the dirty wall, keeping her eyes closed against the headache that was throbbing in her temples and shooting sparks of pain behind her eyes. She knew it was from dehydration, but she only had about a mouthful of water left in the bottle and was trying to ration it, unsure how much longer they would be trapped there.

The last 24 hours or so had left her feeling sluggish and unusually sleepy. Bright had assured her that it was a common symptom of dehydration and would pass once she had more water, even offering his own bottle for her to drink, which she politely refused. She knew he was going to need it more than she did.

While she was shivering slightly in the cool room, rendered sedentary by the increasing dizziness and exhaustion, he'd been pacing the room for hours, sweating and flushed. They were both well aware that the sweat was using up precious fluids that his body couldn't afford to lose, but there was nothing to be done about that. The benzo withdrawal was hitting him hard.

Malcolm was mumbling to himself as he paced the room -14 steps, spin, 14 steps, spin - gesturing expansively as he spoke, but Dani only caught fragments of his sentences here and there as he passed. She knew he was trying to work out where exactly they were and what their captors were planning, hyperfocusing in order to keep his mind off of the growing anxiety and restlessness that was clawing its way through his chest cavity, but she'd given up on trying to help him work the case when she noticed it was just agitating him more.

So she leaned back and waited. Waited for Malcolm to still. Waited for their kidnappers to return. Waited for Gil to figure out where they were and come rescue them.

*

They'd been working a joint case with narcotics for the past couple weeks, trying to bring down a new player in town that was moving a staggering amount of product and leaving a trail of bodies behind. A few days prior, just before sunrise while canvassing the area around the most recent homicide, Dani and Malcolm had stumbled onto a stash house, and before Dani had a chance to call it in or even pull her gun, they'd both been knocked out with forceful blows to the head.

Malcolm had awoken first, groggily taking stock of the room they'd been locked in, heartrate skyrocketing when he saw Dani sprawled on the floor, unmoving. He crawled over to check on her, whispering "please, please, please" as he moved, begging the universe to show some mercy for a change, dropping his head and huffing out a sobbing breath when he found a steady pulse.

He checked the space over, but it was barren aside from two bottles of water set just inside the room. No windows, one very sturdy looking door. His guess was a storage space of some kind. The aged brick and musty, almost rotten smell led him to believe they were in a warehouse near the river, but that didn't really narrow anything down. He tried the door and found it, unsurprisingly, locked. He tried kicking it open a few times, but the heavy hinges and industrial lock kept the door from even shifting. The noise did, however, cause Dani to stir and he rushed to her side to help her up.

A low groan escaped her lips and she pressed a trembling hand to the back of her head as she hauled herself up, leaning unsteadily against the nearby wall and swallowing hard as a wave of nausea overtook her at the too-sudden movement.

"Hey," Malcolm said softly as he crouched down in front of her, supporting her with both of his hands warm on her shoulders. "Take it easy. How are you feeling?"

She scrunched her nose and cracked an eye open. The singular bare bulb in the ceiling provided little light but still stabbed into Dani's brain like hot pokers and she squeezed her eyes shut once again, taking deep breaths as she let the pain wash over her and slowly fade.

"M'okay," she finally managed after the worst of the pain had passed. She knew she'd have a hell of a headache for a while, but she was already starting to feel better. She blinked her eyes open and took in their current predicament, forehead creasing as she noticed the blood on Malcolm's collar.

"Bright," she said, reaching out towards the crimson stain, "you're bleeding."

"I was bleeding. Was. It's fine." He brushed off her concern, moving beside her and gesturing for her to turn her head away so he could check for any serious injuries. She hissed as his fingers ran over a sizable goose-egg on the back of her head.

"Sorry." He winced in sympathy as he pulled his hands away. "Didn't break the skin, but you've got a hell of a lump."

"It's fine," she said, using a grip on his shoulder to help lever herself to her feet. "Did you see anything? Who took us, where we are, anything that might help?"

Malcolm was keeping a close eye on Dani, still worried that she may be sporting a concussion. She raised an eyebrow at the concern that he wore so openly on his face and blew out and exasperated sigh.

"Honestly, Bright. I'm fine," she said earnestly, appreciating his concern but knowing they had more important things they needed to focus on. "But we need to get out of here."

"Right." Bright said, trusting that Dani was being truthful about her head wound. "I only woke up a few minutes before you did. I didn't see anyone. But I think we're by the river, possibly in an abandoned warehouse." He had turned to walk along the wall, trailing his fingers over the brick and mortar as he spoke. "How cliché."

"Why take us to a secondary location?" Dani wondered out loud. "I mean, I get knocking us out when we got too close, but why not just leave us there and run. Or kill us?" Dani asked, making her way to the door and giving the handle a shake.

"Insurance?" Malcolm replied, wandering over to join her at the door and leaning against the wall as she ran her hands around the seams, looking for any weak spots. "They know the police are getting closer. Maybe they intend to use us as bargaining chips to get away?"

Dani hummed noncommittally, then stepped back and kicked at the handle, bringing her foot down hard against the metal. Bright saw her wince at the impact but wisely kept his mouth shut.

He leaned over and picked up the water bottles, handing one out to her as he said, "Looks like reinforced steel hardware. I don't think we're going to be getting out of here by force." She shot him a look and he raised his hands in surrender as best he could while still holding both of the water bottles, adding "Not judging. I tried to kick it open too. I'm just saying I think we may need a new plan."

Dani harrumphed but reached out for one of the bottles of water with a wiggle of her fingers. Malcolm passed it over with an amused smile but pressed his lips together at the glare Dani shot his way.

"How do we know this isn't drugged or something?" Dani asked, inspecting the bottle for signs of tampering.

"They already had us completely at their mercy when we were unconscious," Malcolm replied as he cracked the lid off the bottle. "If they wanted us dead, they would have killed us then." He took a mouthful of the liquid and swallowed it down.

Dani couldn't really fault his logic, so she followed suit, taking a large gulp of the soothing water, but stopped Bright when he brought the bottle to his lips once again.

"Don't know how long we're going to be here," she said placing a halting hand on his forearm. “We might need to make these last."

He looked surprised at the insight and nodded his agreement as he capped the water and put the bottle back on the floor beside the door.

"So what now?" he asked.

"Now we wait."


	2. Chapter 2

Several hours and an extremely awkward conversation into their captivity, they agreed to turn one slightly sunken corner of their makeshift cell into a makeshift latrine. Neither of them were happy about the situation, but they made it work. Dani turned away whenever Malcolm needed to go, which was fine by him. Dani, however, made Bright face the opposite wall, plug his ears and sing when she needed to use it.

The first time it happened, she was so caught off guard by his surprisingly lovely voice that she nearly lost her balance, only catching herself against the wall at the last minute to avoid a messy landing.

She finished her business and walked over to the corner where he was facing the wall, fingers in his ears and singing some jazz standard that she recognized but didn't know the name of, and tapped him on the shoulder. He pulled his fingers out of his ears and offered a bashful smile.

"You've been holding out on us," she said with a mock serious-face, crossing her arms across her body.

"What?"

He looked honestly confused and she barked out a laugh.

"Your voice, Bright. It's... beautiful."

She watched him turn a rather flattering shade of red and cast his eyes away as he mumbled something about "just the acoustics" and figured she should feel bad about embarrassing him, but it was far too adorable so she just smiled instead.

"Okay, do you have anything on you at all that we can use to try to pry the pins out of those hinges?" Dani asked, taking pity on Malcolm and changing the subject.

He patted down his pockets for the hundredth time since he woke up in the room. "I have nothing."

"Yeah," Dani sighed.

They loitered uselessly around the door for some time before they eventually settled on the floor next to one another, discussing any and all the aspects of the case for the rest of the day and well into the night, expanding on Bright’s profile while they waited for their kidnappers to make an appearance.

They never came.

"Dani, why don't you sleep for a bit?" Malcolm asked as Dani yawned for the 5th or 6th time. "I'll keep watch and wake you if anything happens."

"Sleep in shifts?" Dani asked.

"Sure." Malcolm smiled in a way that Dani knew he had no intention of sleeping that night.

"Just for a couple hours. Then wake me up, yeah?"

"Of course."

She took a small swig of water, used the 'bathroom' while Malcolm bashfully sang a 70s power ballad and then settled on her side as comfortably as she could on the cold concrete floor next to where Malcolm was still sitting with his arms resting casually on his knees like he had nowhere else he'd rather be.

"Goodnight Bright," Dani said, burying her head into her outstretched arm.

"Goodnight Dani."

She woke up many hours later, surprisingly well rested and with Malcolm's suit jacket draped over her body. She licked her parched lips and ran a finger along the collar of the jacket where it landed next to her face before turning her head slightly to find Malcolm in Warrior II pose in the middle of the room. _Kidnapped by murderous drug runners and he's doing yoga_ , she thought to herself with a smile.

She pulled herself up, stretching out her cramped muscles, and Bright looked over with a smile.

"Good morning," he beamed.

"Don't let me interrupt," she grinned, patting down her hair into something less sleep rumpled and slipping his jacket on since he wasn't using it anyways. "Did you sleep at all?"

"I got a solid 4 hours the night before last. I'm good for a couple days," he half-joked, transitioning into Reverse Warrior.

She raised an eyebrow but waved him off to finish his yoga routine, walking along the perimeter of the room to stretch out her aching muscles; and here she thought she had left the sleeping-on-the-floor days behind her when she finished college. She'd made numerous circuits of the room, rolling her shoulders and stretching her arms across her body as she walked when Bright settled into Corpse Pose on the floor. She remained silent for nearly 5 minutes, just watching him lay there completely still, before she muttered, "That's creepy."

He kept his eyes closed but she noticed his lips twitch up just a little at the corners.

"Corpse Pose. Seriously. Why would you call it that? That's a terrible name."

He broke into a wide smile and opened his eyes, turning his head towards her.

"I believe the idea is that after your yoga practice, you emerge as a new being and leave your old body - and negative thought patterns - behind. Symbolically, you leave your corpse on the mat, or in this case on the concrete floor, and emerge anew." Malcolm explained as he rose lithely to his feet.

"I still don't want to imitate a corpse," Dani returned. “And we’ve both seen enough corpses to know they almost never look that peaceful.”

Malcolm quirked another smile and shrugged as he said, "I find yoga to be more restful and rejuvenating than sleep ever is."

Dani didn't really know what to say to that, so she slipped off his jacket and handed it over to him with a nod and a quiet, "Thanks."

They both picked up their water bottles and took a sip, the cool water refreshing but leaving them wanting more. Dani struggled to not just swallow the remaining contents, already feeling quite parched.

Malcolm was watching her intently, his profiler's gaze picking up on every movement. "You have a headache, and not just from the knock to the head yesterday," he stated. "You're already mildly dehydrated. You need to drink more than that."

They'd had a few discussions over the last couple months about him not profiling her, but she couldn't even be angry when he was looking so genuinely concerned. She knew it was part of who he was, and that he was just trying to help.

"We need to make it last, Bright," was all she said as she twisted the cap back on and placed the bottle back on the ground.

"Gil will find us." He stated it with such conviction that Dani felt a slow warmth spreading inside her. She still didn't know the whole story behind Gil and Malcolm's relationship, but she knew that Gil was more of a father to him than Martin Whitly ever was. Gil had saved her once too, so she understood Bright's complete faith in the man, but it never failed to melt her heart whenever she witnessed the bond between the two men.

"I know he will," she replied honestly. "But we don't know how long it will take."

He tipped his head in acknowledgement of the point and capped his own bottle, placing it next to hers on the ground, far away from what had become their sitting spot. An attempt to keep temptation at bay.

"So," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets and rocking on the balls of his feet. "What now?"

Dani honestly wasn't sure. There was no hope of breaking the door down, that much was obvious, and it was the only way out of the room. "Any chance we could dig out some of the bricks and get out that way?" She asked but already knew the answer.

"Without proper tools, no. We'd be dead from dehydration long before we ever even got a brick free."

"That's cheery."

"So we wait for Gil to rescue us or for our abductors to come back?" Bright asked, looking towards the door.

"I guess so," Dani frowned. She didn't like waiting, and more than that, she hated not being in control.

They spent the day alternating between making laps around the room and sitting on the floor, trying to ease the boredom. They started the morning discussing their current case, then moved onto discussing past cases. By the time the day rolled into night, they had moved into personal territory, sharing stories of their pasts - of schools and families and exes and childhood dreams.

“My dad was a grill master,” Dani said at one point, hunger at the forefront of her mind. “The man made the best steak I’ve ever had.” Her stomach growled at the thought and she blushed at the sound as it seemed to echo in the smallish space. “I swear, when we get out of here, I’m stopping at the nearest steakhouse and ordering the largest steak on the menu, medium rare with a steaming hot baked potato.”

Malcolm chuckled. “I’ll join you, if you don’t mind the company. I don’t know about ordering the biggest steak, but I could definitely eat something right about now.”

“And a big, icy glass of coke,” Dani said dreamily.

“Coffee for me,” Malcolm said, swallowing against the dryness in his throat.

They only drank from their bottles 4 times throughout the day, barely enough to sooth their throats and not nearly enough to satisfy the burning thirst that was spreading like wildfire through their bodies, but even still they were both down to a couple more swallows of water by the end of the night.

Dani was once again sitting on the floor next to Bright when she noticed that he was starting to fidget even more than usual - knee bouncing where he was sitting cross legged, fingers twisting themselves into painful looking knots. She finally reached over and laid a hand over his, stilling the anxious movement. "We're going to get out of here," she said, assuming the confines of the room were finally getting to him.

"Yeah. Of course," he answered too quickly and flashed a too-wide smile.

She twisted her body to face him fully, taking in how stressed he was starting to look. "Hey, what's wrong?" She pulled his hands apart where he was still wringing them in his lap. She kept one of his hands in each of hers, rubbing soothing circles over his knuckles, watching as he chewed on his lip and kept his eyes cast down.

"I'm fine." End of discussion. His tone made that perfectly clear.

It was the answer she would have expected from him weeks ago, before they had started getting to know each other better. Hell, before they spent a day locked in a room together, sharing their entire lives with one another. She'd never admit it, but it stung a little that he kept up the charade when something was obviously wrong.

"Okay," she said while pulling her hands back, already missing the warmth.

He looked like he wanted to say something but got to his feet and began pacing the room instead, burning off some of the nervous energy that was radiating from him.

"You should sleep," he said on one of his passes in front of her.

"So should you."

He stopped to face her, taking in the hurt and concern that was so plain to read on her face and huffed out a breath.

"I'm sorry," he sighed. "I guess I'm going a little stir crazy. I just need to move for a bit and then I'll try sleeping too."

She could tell there was more to it than just a bit of cabin fever, but he obviously wasn't ready to talk about it, so she just nodded and curled once again on her side on the cold floor, pillowing her head on her arm as she got ready for a long and uncomfortable night. The tap-tap-tap of Malcolm's dress shoes on the concrete slowly lulled her into an uneasy and fitful sleep. Into endless dreams of fighting to save Bright as he teetered on the edge of a cliff, frantically reaching out to grab his hand but finding herself held back by an unseen force that was wrapping itself tightly around her chest, keeping her from getting to him in time as she was forced to watch the terror in his eyes as he fell away from her.


	3. Chapter 3

She jerked awake sometime in the early hours of the morning, breath caught tight in her throat and heart hammering in her chest. She looked around and saw Bright curled tightly upon himself, sitting in the corner of the room with his arms wrapped around his legs and his head resting on his knees. She could hear how fast he was breathing from where she was laying and immediately knew that something was wrong. She discreetly looked around, making sure that they were still alone before quickly getting to her feet and hurrying to his side, crouching down beside him and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

He whimpered at the touch but kept his head down and she could feel the tension in his shoulders.

"Bright," she said quietly, concern bleeding through the single word. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine." It came through muffled and not at all convincing.

"Mmmhmm. You look fine." She sank down beside him, hip to hip, letting her presence show him that, whatever was wrong, he wasn't alone. She stayed silent beside him, waiting for him to choose where to go.

Her hand came up to pinch the bridge of her nose while she waited, and she discovered that her head was starting to throb in earnest, the dehydration becoming a much more pressing problem. She looked over to where their bottles of water were waiting on the floor across the room and, for the first time since they woke up on Tuesday morning, started to doubt that Gil was going to find them in time. A wave of guilt immediately washed over her for doubting him, but logically, she realized he was just one man, and their time was running out.

"It's going to get worse." Bright's voice drew her from her increasingly gloomy thoughts. "I'm...it's..."

She heard him struggling and felt at a loss as to how she could help when she wasn't even sure what the problem was, but she wanted nothing more than to make things better. She leaned in closer and laid a hand on his forearm, letting him know she was listening.

"I, uh, I'm on a lot of prescription medications," he said quietly and she could hear a hint of shame at the confession. "Benzodiazepines, mostly."

She wasn't exactly surprised considering his past, but she still wasn't quite following why he was telling her now.

"I'm. Um. I'm starting to go through withdrawal, and it's going to get worse." He paused before adding flippantly, "Unless of course I die of dehydration first. I suppose there's always room to hope."

"Bright. Don't." Gallows humour was something she understood well, most cops cope the same way, but she wasn't okay with joking about him dying. Not when it was a distressingly real possibility.

He lifted his head and ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the roots against the building headache and keeping his eyes closed. "Sorry."

"Okay," Dani said firmly, pragmatic as always. "What can we expect." She knew that Bright would have no use for trite platitudes and opted instead for practicality and preparedness. She had an intimate understanding of drug withdrawal, but not from Benzodiazepines. She had no idea if the symptoms would be different.

Malcolm tilted his head and looked her over, offering a small smile when he didn't see the expected pity or disgust, but only a genuine resolve to help, making him realize he should never have expected any less from Dani Powell.

"The anxiety and restlessness have already started, obviously," he said matter-of-factly, "but they're going to get much worse. Insomnia, but I don't think I'll even notice a difference there." He tried to lighten the mood but Dani just stared at him stonily. He sighed and carried on, "Vomiting, diarrhea and mood swings are pretty much guaranteed. Hallucinations, seizures and suicidal tendencies are a very real possibility. But it typically takes a number of days to get to that point, and if Gil or our abductors don't come soon..."

She knew he wasn't making light of the situation this time. Just stating a fact.

"Shit."

He huffed an exhausted laugh at her terse reaction before dropping his head down to his knees once again, clearly trying to keep his breathing calm and even, trying to hold on the comfort Dani provided.

"Okay," Dani said. "I think we need to try a new tactic. Waiting for Gil isn't an option anymore." She pushed herself to her feet and found herself swaying a little and holding onto the wall, but pushed through it before Bright could notice. She marched over to the door and started banging on it and hollering as loudly as she could.

"Hey! Is anyone out there?! We need some help! Hello?!"

Malcolm's head shot up as Dani stated yelling. "Dani, what are you doing?"

She stopped her pounding and looked over to him. "Trying to get someone's attention."

"Is that a good idea? Do we want the attention of the homicidal drug dealers?"

"We're running out of options." She started banging the side of her fist against the door again, shouting until her voice cracked and her hand went numb. She only stopped when her head started to swim, and she leaned forward, resting her head against the door for a breather. She didn't even notice Malcolm come over until she felt his hand between her shoulder blades and looked up to find him holding out her bottle of water, eyebrows furrowed and clearly anxious about her wellbeing.

"Sorry. Headache," she explained, taking a small sip of the water and re-capping the bottle immediately.

"The dehydration is becoming more severe. The headache and lethargy will only get worse and your urine output has already decreased."

She knew she should be weirded out that he'd been paying attention to her urine output, but she'd also noted how infrequently he’d been peeing, and it had been concerning her too.

"I know, Bright. I've been missing your singing," she smirked, laughing lightly at the expected blush that swept over his cheeks, before getting down to business. "I think we need to conserve our energy. Try and keep our strength up in case our captors show up." If pounding on the door and calling out had tired her enough to the point of nearly passing out, she wasn't going to be much good if they were ever given a chance to escape.

And so they sat against the wall, shoulder to shoulder, waiting. Time passed slowly as Dani got increasing lethargic, struggling to keep her eyes open, and Malcolm became increasingly restless, struggling to remain still. A couple hours into the day, Malcolm shrugged his jacket off and draped it over Dani's shoulders.

"No," she protested, "you'll get cold."

"It's too hot," was all he said, and she saw the beads of sweat on his forehead and upper lip as he tried to settle back down next to her and she snuggled into the warmth of his jacket.

She could feel the faint tremor running through his body and listened as his breathing turned shallow and rapid. Dani wasn't someone prone to worry, but she was definitely worried now.

"What do you need?" she asked. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I need to move. I can't just sit here," he replied breathlessly. He looked over to her and the pain in his bright blue eyes was nearly too much to take. She nodded and he quickly got to his feet, beginning his pacing once again, now with a frantic energy that hadn't been there before.

She left him in peace for over an hour before suggesting, "Would yoga help? You said it helps to calm you, right?"

He didn't break pace as he waved off the idea with a flick of his wrist. "Can't. Not in this head space."

A couple more hours and he looked ready to drop. He was having trouble keeping his eyes open and his head kept bobbing down only to snap back up, his footing faltering each time.

"Bright. Can you try to sleep? Just for a little bit?" Dani struggled to her feet and placed herself in front of him, halting his movement. She slowly reached her hands out to cup his face and looked into his glassy eyes. "Please. You've been up for like, 60 hours. You can't keep going like this."

"I can't," he whispered, sounding utterly heartbroken. "I need to be restrained. Especially now. I won't risk hurting you."

Dani let out a stuttering breath. He was keeping himself from sleeping to protect her. She kicked herself for not having realized that earlier.

She looked at him with an intensity that surprised him and told him, "I won't let you hurt me. And I promise I'll wake you at the first sign of a nightmare." She could see the refusal forming on his lips and played her last card. "Please Bright? Can you just try. For me?"

His shoulders slumped and she knew that he would concede. She felt a small twinge of guilt about manipulating him, but if got him a few hours of sleep, it was definitely worth it. They made their way back to the wall and Dani slid down to resume her cross-legged position while Malcolm all but threw himself on the floor next to her, fidgeting and flopping around like a fish out of water as he tried to clear his mind enough to sleep. Dani's fingers were running calmingly through his hair before she even noticed she'd moved her hand. Her hand froze and her eyes widened in surprise as she realized what she was doing, but she quickly saw that Malcolm had stilled at the touch so she resumed the movement, gently massaging her fingers over his scalp as she carded her hand through his hair.

His breathing gradually slowed to something approaching normal, and eventually dropped into the slow, deep breaths of slumber. She continued with the gentle touch, hoping that it might help fend off the night terrors. And it did. For a while.

She estimated he lasted a little over an hour, an hour and a half at most, before he started panting and calling out, the broken cries of "no" and "don't" making Dani ache for the man beside her. She shook his shoulder gently and called out his name, mindful of where his hands were so she didn't catch an errant fist to the face.

He woke with a jolt, automatically yanking himself away from her, scrambling backwards until he hit the wall behind him. He stared at her with wide eyes, terrified and shaking.

She held her hands up palms out, but made no move to get closer to him, recognizing that he needed some space. "Hey, it's okay," she said quietly, "You're safe. It was just a dream."

The terror slowly faded from his face, but it looked like the shakes were there to stay, a trembling that seemed to run from head to toe. He somehow managed to look worse than before he slept and Dani was second guessing making him sleep at all.

It startled her when he jumped to his feet and began pacing once again, stating the facts of the case from the beginning. She tried interjecting at first, helping to provide him with additional insights when he struggled to remember a name or a fact, but he flinched every time she did, so she eventually just leaned her head back and let him be. She watched as his eyes would occasionally fix on an empty spot in the room, leading him to just stop and stare at something only he could see, muttering indistinctly under his breath until he would squeeze his eyes shut tight, blink them open, and then resume his pacing and talking like nothing had happened. And Dani knew there wasn't a damn thing she could do to help him, so she sat and seethed and used that anger to try to stay awake.


	4. Chapter 4

Hours of watching Bright pace left her eyelids fluttering closed, exhaustion winning over rage, and she was just starting to doze off when the sound of a key in the lock had her eyes snapping open and saw her struggling to her feet. Malcolm's head jerked towards the noise and he flattened himself against the nearest wall as the building anxiety that was raging through his body came to a head.

The door opened to reveal an older, white-haired man that Dani guessed was probably in his early 60s, flanked by two large men with assault rifles. The three men walked into the room, the bodyguards taking their post on either side of the gentleman in the finely tailored charcoal suit.

Dani tried to focus on the men, tried to run scenarios in her head to work out the best way to escape, but her eyes just kept landing on the two bottles of water the man was holding in his hand. He noted where her eyes kept falling and held them out with a smirk. Dani inched forward slowly, ignoring the guns that were aimed her way as soon as she started moving. She reached out cautiously and took both bottles then moved backwards towards Malcolm, handing one over to him. He took it with trembling hands but she could already tell he wouldn't be able to open it.

She placed her own bottle in the crook of her arm and opened the lid on his, helping to steady to bottle as he brought it to his cracked lips. He took a small sip and the pushed the bottle away.

"Bright, drink it all this time," she whispered, pressing it back to his lips and trying not to be concerned by his confused look. He did as requested though and drank the whole bottle in a single breath. Only once he had finished did she open her own bottle and down it all in one go as well.

"I should apologize," the older man said with a Western-European accent, hands spread out in front of him. "I fear I haven't been a very good host."

"Who are you?" Dani asked

"You may call me Jacob," he said with a smile. "And I'd like for you to follow me."

Jacob turned and left the room, the guard on his right following behind him while the guard on his left motioned with his rifle for Dani and Malcolm to follow behind. Dani placed a hand on Malcolm's arm and guided him out of the room, the remaining guard taking up a position immediately behind them, gun at the ready.

They were led to a vast, open area with large bay doors at the far end, clearly a loading bay from when the warehouse was still operating. There were just over a dozen men waiting in a loose semicircle and it looked to Dani like all of them were armed, but even more alarming was the look of anticipation on many of their faces.

She could feel the tremor running through Malcolm's body under her hand where she was still firmly grasping his arm. She noticed his eyes darting wildly around but couldn't tell if he was seeing what was there or if the hallucinations were taking over. She kept her hand on him to keep him near as much as to keep him grounded.

They approached the circle and Jacob turned to face them.

"My men and I have been confined to this space since you stumbled upon part of our operation, staying hidden until plans could be made to move ourselves and the product to someplace safer. It has been a very boring time for my men." Dani noted the men nodding their agreement and wanted to shout that it had been worse for them, but she bit her tongue and let Jacob continue. "We will be leaving soon and will only require one of you as a hostage, so I decided to give my men a show."

He nodded to one of the men, who promptly pulled a knife from a sheath at his waist and tossed it to the floor in the center of the ring of men.

"One of you will be coming with us. The other will stay here and bleed to death, a warning for the police. The entertaining part for my men is that you get decided who stays and who goes." Jacob said with a wide and predatory smile.

Two men had circled behind Dani and Malcolm and now nudged them forward, into the middle of the ring formed by the men. Dani thought that Malcolm seemed a bit more with it, the vacant look in his eyes having faded just a little, replaced with a look of horror as he looked down at the knife and back up at Dani, shaking his head minutely.

Dani faced Jacob, anger radiating off her in waves. "We're not going to fight each other you sick fuck."

The men all laughed, and Jacob's eyes shone with mirth. "Feisty," he laughed. "I hope you're that one that survives. I think the journey could be more fun with you."

Dani looked around and couldn't help notice the appraising looks the men were giving her. It made her skin crawl.

Jacob either didn't notice or didn't care about her discomfort, continuing talking as she glared at the men around her. "You will choose. I'll give you 5 minutes and then my men will start taking shots. Kneecaps, shoulders, non-lethal but painful, until that knife is buried to the hilt in one of you."

Many of the men around them were getting impatient and Dani definitely saw a few of them stroking the trigger of their guns. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and then turned her attention to Bright, who was chewing on his lip and trying hard to focus. She hurried over to him and put her hand on his shoulders, forcing him to look at her.

"Bright," she whispered, "now would be a good time for one of those terrible ideas that you always have. You know, the kind that are stupid and dangerous but that always seem to turn out well in the end."

The corner of his mouth quirked into a half-smile and she was overwhelmingly relieved to see that he was still in there.

"I, uh. Yeah. I have a pretty terrible idea," he whispered back. "Can you keep him talking for a minute?"

"I can do that. Then what?"

"Follow my lead."

She looked back and forth between his eyes, but he seemed pretty confident that whatever he was planning would work, so she dropped her hands and spun back towards Jacob, taking a few strides closer to the man.

"You won't get away with this," she spat. "You can't possibly think that you can kidnap two members of the NYPD and just walk away."

"My dear, you seem to have forgotten that we did just that only a few days ago," Jacob said, clearly amused by Dani's anger.

"If one of us turns up dead, you'll have the entire NYPD hunting you down and dismantling your organization," Dani threatened. Unconsciously falling into a power pose to feel more assured, she stood with her hands on her hips and her feet shoulder-width apart, aiming to project a confidence that she wasn't actually feeling. Even knowing that Bright had a plan, if there was a chance she could use this time to talk Jacob out of this ridiculous plan, she had to try.

Jacob was obviously unimpressed by her argument, unimpressed by her, and just looked down at his watch. "My dear, you're running out of time." But then he glanced over Dani's shoulder and smiled. "Oh. I see you're really running out of time."

Dani turned slowly and saw Malcolm straightening up, knife gripped loosely in his hand. Dani raised an eyebrow, entirely unsure of what Malcolm's plan was. She knew he wouldn't hurt her. That wasn't even a question, but if he was planning on trying to take out Jacob, she was going to have to stop him. That would be suicide with all of these guns around them.

The men in the circle started cheering as Malcolm took hold of the knife, bloodlust surging as they waited, and Dani realized that there would be no talking her way out this one. It was going to come down to Bright's plan, whatever that was.

Dani saw that Malcolm's breathing was speeding up once again and he looked... sad. His eyes were dancing around the room and she was quite sure that he was hallucinating, but his gaze kept coming back to her, and every time it did, his expression melted from anxiety and terror to a deep sorrow that Dani would swear she could feel in her soul.

"Bright?" she questioned, slowly moving towards him with her hands raised placatingly, showing him and everyone else that she wasn't a threat. "Bright, what are you doing?"

Malcolm gave her a sad smile and with a vivid flash of clarity, she understood.

"Tell Gil I'm sorry," he whispered


	5. Chapter 5

“No!” Dani screamed as she leapt forward, but it was already too late - he had flipped the knife in his hand and plunged it into his abdomen. She watched in horror as his mouth opened in a silent scream, fingers still wrapped around the handle of the knife.

Time stopped as Malcolm and Dani both stood frozen, Dani staring at the knife embedded in Malcolm's gut, and Malcolm staring at Dani’s horrorstruck face. She forgot about the case, about the men with guns surrounding them, about everything except for the man standing in front of her as the blood began to soak through his shirt, a lurid red patch against the white fabric of his dress shirt.

"Bright." It was little more than a whisper of breath, but it felt like an explosion of heartbreak and was more than Malcolm could handle. He dropped to his knees as Dani rushed forward, sinking down in front of him with tears in her eyes. "What did you do?"

Her hands were wavering near the knife, unsure how to help. She looked up into his eyes, heart twisting at the pain she saw there, and she brought her useless hands up to gently cup his face.

His breaths were coming in short, ragged pants but his eyes were clear, the adrenaline having cleared the fog of withdrawal for the moment. That clarity made the anguish in his eyes so much harder to look at.

"Gil...will find you," Malcolm said between gasps. "This will buy you...some time."

Bright was listing forward and Dani was afraid he was going to faint and land on the knife, so she eased him gently onto his side, leaving him slightly curled around the knife as he closed his eyes and tried to breathe through the pain.

She was aware of conversations happening around her, some angry and some indifferent, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Bright.

"We could've found another way," she whispered, thumb stroking soothingly over his cheekbone. "Your terrible plans are supposed to get us all out alive."

He smiled weakly but kept his eyes scrunched tight against the pain. "It gets you out alive."

Warm tears were running down her face when a hand landed on her shoulder, making her jump and twist her body around to the threat. It was one of Jacob’s bodyguards. He slid his hand from her shoulder to under her arm, yanking her to her feet.

"No!" She screamed, looking back at Bright and struggling against the firm hold.

Jacob merely raised an eyebrow and said, "Prepare her to move. Leave that one to bleed out,” he nodded towards Malcolm's shaking form on the floor “Take a picture to send to the police as a diversion once we leave. Transport will be here in 10 minutes, I want everything at the doors and ready to go."

Dani thrashed and kicked and tried to get to Malcolm, but the man had half a foot and 100 pounds on her and she didn't stand a chance. As he dragged her away from Malcolm, she heard a faint, "Goodbye, Dani" that stole her breath away and felt like a gut punch.

The man half-dragged, half-carried her to the bay doors where another man helped to zip-tie her hands behind her back and placed a cloth bag over her head. They pushed her roughly into a metal chair, which she immediately tried to get up from. She stopped when she felt the barrel of a gun pressed cold and unyielding beneath her chin and a gravelly voice threatened, "I'm fine with leaving two dead cops here if you don't shut the fuck up and sit still."

Dani realized that Malcolm's sacrifice would be for nothing if she didn't get out alive, so she sat still and made a promise to herself that she would hunt down every last person in this room and see them pay for what they'd done.

It wasn't long before she heard Jacob approach, providing instructions to his men as their transportation arrived. They seemed to be an organized and well-trained group and took his direction without complaint, making her suspect that many of them had some sort of military background. Although she couldn’t see what they were doing, Dani could hear the rustle of boxes and crates being moved into place as the bay doors were hauled opened.

What followed was complete pandemonium. The shouts of "NYPD, don't move!" mixed immediately with rapid gunfire and Dani threw herself to the floor in an effort to avoid any stray bullets. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest as the gunfire and shouting clashed around her, the restraints and blindfold leaving her feeling helpless and exposed. It felt like hours but was likely only a matter of minutes before she felt a warm hand on her arm and the bag was pulled off her head.

"Hey there, Powell, sorry we’re late," Gil smiled down at her, relief washing over his worried features as he took in her unharmed state.

"Bright," she said, launching herself unevenly to her feet, her tied hands making it difficult to rise from the floor. Gil steadied her with two strong hands and she saw the fear settle back into his features just before she took off running to where Bright was laying near the back of the warehouse, Gil following hot on her heels.

There were already two members of the ESU team with him, one of which was applying pressure around the wound as Bright thrashed weakly beneath the man's touch.

"Jesus Christ," Gil breathed out, running a hand nervously over his goatee as he took in the substantial pool of blood beneath the profiler.

One of the ESU officers looked up and informed Gil that an ambulance was en route and would be there in less than 5 minutes, but for Dani and Gil, 5 minutes seemed like an eternity.

Dani dropped to her knees by Malcolm's head and started speaking softly. "Bright? Bright can you hear me?" Malcolm stopped struggling and opened his eyes but couldn't seem to focus on Dani, his gaze shifting around the space as he mumbled incoherently under his breath. "You were right, Bright. Gil found us." Her voice cracked as she continued talking to him, trying to keep the tears back and stay calm for him. "So now you just need to hold on a little longer, okay? Help is coming and we're all getting out of here, because that's how your terrible ideas work, right?"

Gil grabbed a pair of cutters from a passing ESU officer and took a knee behind Dani to cut her hands free. As soon as the zip-tie was off, Dani was running a hand through Malcolm's hair in the same soothing gesture she had used before. He closed his eyes and relaxed into her warmth, turning his head towards Dani like he was chasing after the touch.

Gil had taken Bright's hand in his own and Dani noticed the tears he was blinking back as she looked up to quietly tell him, "He's going through Benzo withdrawal. We need to get him to the hospital. Now."

Gil's head dropped as he muttered a curse under his breath. "Where's that ambulance?!" he shouted towards the group of officers near the bay doors. They didn’t even have a chance to respond before the ambulance pulled up in front of the doors, lights flashing over the chaos of dozens of officers in full tactical gear rounding up the bad guys and hauling them away in cuffs.

Dani let out a relieved breath when she saw the paramedics hopping out of the ambulance and quickly heading towards them, stretcher and med kit in tow.

The relief was short lived.

She felt the movement beneath her hand where rested on Malcolm's head before she saw it. By the time she'd returned her attention from the paramedics back to Malcolm he was seizing on the floor, body tense and jerking as his muscles convulsed painfully. The ESU officer applying pressure to the wound jerked his hands back as the sudden movement caused the knife to nick his hand, but Dani and Gil immediately moved to hold Malcolm still, terrified of the damage the seizure could cause if the knife were to shift. Dani pressed down on Malcolm's shoulders while Gil held his hips still, both of them ignoring the hits they were taking from Malcolm's thrashing limbs.

The paramedics picked up the pace and were next to them in no time.

"Tonic-clonic seizure," one of the paramedics, a serious looking man in his mid-30s, said as he knelt next to Malcolm and noted the knife in his abdomen. "We're going to need to remove the knife to avoid any further internal injuries."

His partner, a blonde woman a few years older, opened the bag and pulled out gauze, preparing for the inevitable increase in bleeding.

"Can you keep a hold of him?" he asked Gil and Dani, and at their brisk nods, he grabbed hold of the handle of the knife and slid it out of Malcolm's abdomen. His partner immediately worked to stop the increased bleeding, packing the wound with gauze while he searched through the bag for a syringe and vial of diazepam, quickly pulling up a dose.

"Injecting diazepam intramuscularly," the paramedic stated as he jabbed Malcolm in the thigh.

It was the longest 90 seconds of Dani's life.

But finally, finally, the seizures stopped. As Malcolm went completely limp, Dani felt her own body sagging in relief and allowed the paramedics to nudge her out of the way so they could more fully work on Malcolm. One of the medics cut open Malcolm's shirt and dressed the wound, while the other started an IV line to begin replacing the fluids he had lost.

"He's going through Benzodiazepine withdrawal," Gil's voice waivered as he filled the paramedics in. "He was abducted on Tuesday and hasn't had any of his meds since."

"Do you happen know what he was taking?" The female paramedic asked as she and her partner lifted Malcolm onto the stretcher.

"Not offhand, but I'll have a list by the time you reach the hospital."

Dani knew Gil was going to have to call Mrs. Whitly for that and didn't envy him that phone call, but she was too fixated on Malcolm's disturbingly still form on the stretcher to really pay Gil any mind. Seeing Bright like this, so still and silent, was wrong in so many ways. He was normally a ball of barely restrained energy and Dani was shocked how awful it was to see him completely motionless. A tremor racked her body as she unexpectedly remembered him in Corpse Pose, making her stomach churn at how close a call this had really been.

A hand on her shoulder finally pulled her attention away from Malcolm and she looked up to find Gil standing above her with a worried look on his face.

"Powell?" he said, and his tone implied it wasn't the first time he'd called her name. "Are you hurt?" he asked when she’d finally acknowledged his presence.

"No," she said quietly. "No, I'm good."

Gil helped her to her feet and they walked with the paramedics over to the ambulance, his warm armed wrapped around her shaking shoulders. As they loaded Malcolm into the rig, Gil turned to Dani and said, "I want you to ride with him. Keep me updated and I'll send along a list of his medications for you to pass on to the doctors. I want you checked out at the hospital too. That's not a request, Powell," he added as she made to protest the suggestion.

She reluctantly nodded her agreement and climbed into the back of the ambulance, settling on the bench next to Malcolm and taking hold of his limp hand.

"You're gonna be okay, Bright," she whispered, unsure if she was saying it for him or for herself, before adding more firmly, "We have a steak dinner to get to, remember?"

She finally broke down and cried, sobs overtaking her body, as she felt his hand squeeze hers and she knew that he was going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> I realize I probably sped up Malcolm's withdrawal symptoms, but I figure with everything he's on and the fact that he hasn't eaten or drank much of anything in three days, maybe it's hitting him a bit faster?
> 
> Thank you all for coming back to read and comment as I posted the chapters, it seriously means so much to me!


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